Fourth Amendment
Standard of Reasonableness
The Court then addressed the standard of reasonableness which applies to these two kinds of searches. In balancing the government’s interest in ensuring the efficient and proper operation of the workplace against the employee’s privacy interests, the court established a reasonableness under all the circumstances standard for these intrusions. Under this standard, both the inception and scope of the intrusion must be reasonable. The Court explained that a search of an employee\'s office by a supervisor will be "justified at its inception" when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the employee is guilty of work-related misconduct, or that the search is necessary for a noninvestigatory, work-related purpose such as to retrieve a needed file. The search will be permissible in its scope when the search procedures are reasonably related to the objectives of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the nature of the misconduct. The Court specifically did not address the appropriate standards to apply when an employee is being investigated for criminal misconduct or breaches of other nonwork-related statutory or regulatory standards. Because some military supervisors also function in a quasi-prosecutorial or law enforcement mode \(for example, commanders and first sergeants\) attorneys should proceed with extreme caution under the work-related misconduct search.
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